Warning: Solar Proton Event Could Fry Earth

Tight-lipped heliologists are studying the sun more intently than they ever have―as if their lives depended on it. And well it may. In fact, everyone’s lives may depend on just what the sun does during the last part of the current solar cycle, a cycle that NASA and the ESA spent the past 5 years warning governments and the people of Earth to prepare for in advance. Few heeded their warnings. Now some solar scientists, studying the history of solar proton event (SPE) mass extinctions see a pattern emerging that leads them to wonder if another such event is building. Most try hard not to think about it too much, although it may be haunting them in tortured dreams.

When the sun killed

As Dr. Paul LaViolette sifted through the data he discovered incredible evidence that a horrific event occurred almost 13,000 years in the past, a period that encompasses the Rancholabrean termination.

Brilliant scientist Dr. Paul LaViolette discovered SPE horror

The sun erupted in a series of super-charged solar proton events that blasted away the Earth’s protective magnetosphere, ionosphere and utterly destroyed the geomagnetic field.

Over a period stretching from decades to centuries, the sun pounded a defenseless Earth again and again with deadly radiation across the spectrum. The solar kill shots centered on North and South America, Siberia and parts of Europe.

Accepted theories now in question

Near the end of the last major Ice Age, known as the Younger Dryas Period, many species of mammals abruptly disappeared. The sudden extinction puzzled scientists for years, and some paleontologists studying the mass extinction event called it the greatest extinction since the death of the dinosaur species.

Although virtually all large mammals were affected, many smaller species—including certain birds—were also decimated.

Over the years theorists have proposed the shocking extinction had its roots in massive meteoric and cometary impacts, or overhunting by paleolithic Man. Yet every theory falls short of a full explanation and each has its flaws.

SPEs and life on Earth

As LaViolette dug deeper more disturbing data emerged: evidence of intense solar activity matching the 200-year de Vries solar cycle period. As Space Daily observes, “This was the smoking gun that indicated that these spurts very likely had a solar cause.” And those “spurts” killed off many species on Earth.

When the sun kills proton streams erupt from photosphere

By analyzing the history of radiocarbon increases, LaViolette determined at least two major and two minor SPEs occurred. Each of these killed life—or mutated it—predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in North America.

“Extrapolating upward from that event,” Space Daily notes, “LaViolette estimates that the 12,837 years BP extinction level SPE would have delivered over a two day period a radiation dose of from 3 to more than 6 Sieverts, lethal dose (LD-100) for most mammals being in the range of 3 to 8 Sieverts.

Sun blasting geomagnetic field [Image: NASA]

“The upper range of his estimate is a very conservative projection based on the assumption that the SPE would have been strong enough to overpower the Earth’s protective magnetic field sheath allowing the full intensity of the solar cosmic ray barrage to directly contact the Earth’s atmosphere and induce an intense shower of cosmic ray secondaries.”

Such an intense radioactive blast could very well be the cause behind the total extinction of many types of birds and smaller mammals and even account for the virtual disappearance of all Pleistocene megafauna.

Interstellar cloud invaded the solar system

“He attributes this elevated solar activity to the presence in the solar system of high concentrations of interstellar dust which at that time were being driven inward by a wind of galactic cosmic rays.”

Map of recent global solar proton events

Determined, LaViolette continued digging and found physical evidence that the polar regions completely lost their protective ozone layers and were drenched with cosmic rays and intense ultraviolet radiation for at least several years. Much of that spread downwards to the lower latitudes.

The days the sun ‘burned the Earth

As the proton events built in intensity the climate warmed significantly, super wildfires broke out across North America, and whole regions were destroyed in massive conflagrations.

Meanwhile, hard radiation mercilessley blanketed the upper latitudes on and off over several thousand years resulting in “multiple extinction level episodes.”

If the Northern Hemisphere became such a killing field, how did ancient Man survive it?

The scientist’s book documents many ancient legends and myths related to the era of the last Ice Age.

LaViolette’s book shares the legends of the SPEs

The misty legends, almost lost in time, describe how the sun once burned the Earth or touched the Earth, and the ancient stories relate how many animals died or turned into strange monsters, and how gigantic fires erupted in the forest lands.

Other legends tell of many humans seeking shelter inside caves or underground when the sun “burst forth in anger.”